album

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈaɫ.bũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈal.bum]^[1]

Forms

album n (genitive albī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter of albus “white” used as a noun.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero, in De oratore, describes how the chief pontiff recorded the events of each year and set them up on a white board at his house.^[2] Köbler dates Cicero 81–43 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant the colour white, as of spotted hides in Virgil's Eclogues, and a white substance.^[2] Celsus has album oculorum, the white of the eyes.^[5] The white of an egg was album ōvī.^[1]

Its public sense was a white tablet or noticeboard: the chief pontiff's annals, the calendar that Livy says was displayed round the forum, and the praetor's edict.^[2][3] From this it came to mean any official list, such as the roll of senators from which Tacitus says a man was struck off.^[2] Medieval Latin used it of the book of life and of confraternity books.^[4] German scholars revived the word in the 16th century for an album amicorum of colleagues' signatures, and English album is recorded in the 1650s.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the pontiff's white board.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the calendar displayed round the forum.^[2][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of the senatorial roll.^[2][4]
• 1650s – English album is recorded, first as albo “souvenir book”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The colour white, whiteness.^[2][1]
2. A white substance, album oculorum, the white of the eye, album ōvī, the white of an egg.^[2][5][1]
3. A white tablet or noticeboard, for edicts and annals.^[2][1]
4. An official list or register.^[2][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) The book of life; a confraternity book.^[4]

Related words

• English album

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.